Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2016

Department

Philosophy and Religion

School

Humanities

Abstract

Myriad instances of animist phenomena abound in the Buddhist world, but due to the outdated concepts of thinkers such as Edward Tylor, James George Frazer, and Melford Spiro, commonly scholars perceive this animism merely as the work of local religions, not as deriving from Buddhism itself. However, when one follows a number of contemporary scholars and employs a new, relational concept of animism that is based on respectful recognition of nonhuman personhoods, a different picture emerges. The works of Western Buddhists such as Stephanie Kaza, Philip Kapleau Roshi, and Gary Snyder express powerful senses of relational animism that arise specifically from Buddhist thought and practice. Recognizing the role of relational animism within Buddhism opens a new window on the dynamics of the tradition and this perspective can clarify issues such as the distribution of Buddhist (non)vegetarianism.

Comments

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Contemporary Buddhism on 1/2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14639947.2016.1189130.

Publication Title

Contemporary Buddhism

Volume

17

Issue

1

First Page

30

Last Page

48

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